Netflix has updated their Android app this afternoon, adding support for three more devices.

In addition to the Droid Incredible, Nexus One, EVO 4G, T-Mobile G2 and Samsung Nexus S, the app now supports the original Motorola Droid, the LG Revolution and the Casio G'zOne Commando C771, as long as the phones have Android 2.2.

The company also listed a few bug fixes:

-Fixed application failure on startup when phone's embedded storage space is almost full.

-Removed check that prevented attempt to playback on unsupported devices.

While the device check has been removed, reports have come in that the support is still very hit-or-miss on devices that are not officially on the supported list, including the new Thunderbolt.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said today that profits for the company coming from China is only $1.25 billion per year, about 1/50th of the software giant's overall revenue of $62 billion.

The CEO says that number could jump to $7.5 billion if China had better piracy control.

Speaking to Chinese employees today, Ballmer said "our revenue in China will be about a twentieth of our revenue in the United States," even though the company sells the same amount of PCs in both countries.

Additionally, the CEO says the company makes six times as much per PC sold in India as it does in China, ever since India initiated stricter piracy controls in the country.

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Developer CD Projekt has announced today that the official 1.1 update for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will strip all DRM that came with the game originally.

Additionally, the patch allows gamers to install and play the game on any amount of computers they want, whereas before it was restricted to 3 machines.

Says the developer:

Our goal is to make our fans and customers happy and to reward them for buying our game and DRM schemes does not support our philosophy as they might create obstacles for users of legally bought copies.

Our approach to countering piracy is to incorporate superior value in the legal version. This means it has to be superior in every respect: less troublesome to use and install, with full support, and with access to additional content and services. So, we felt keeping the DRM would mainly hurt our legitimate users.

This is completely in line with what we said before the release of The Witcher 2. We felt DRM was necessary to prevent the game being pirated and leaked before release. This purpose has been served, so we are pleased to let our users enjoy the full freedom of game usage they deserve.

Outside of the removal of the DRM, the update will also bring a free DLC quest, frame rate increases and greater stability.

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Google has introduced their "Wallet" automatic mobile phone payment system today, turning NFC-enabled devices into credit cards.

Users with Android devices will be able to pay for groceries or other items by waving their phones in front of NFC readers.

Google, alongside launching their daily deal site Google Offers, says it envisions Android devices eventually being a "personal financial hub" for coupons, loyalty points, payments, receipts and more.

As a way to not scare the credit card firms, Google will not take any share of the fees generated from Wallet payments, instead relying on added revenue from traffic, ads and Google Offers.

Wallet will launch over the summer, with trials starting sooner in NYC and San Francisco. A few of the retailers that will soon accept mobile payments are Macy's, Subway, Walgreens, Toys "R" Us, Bloomingdale's and Guess.

As with physical credit cards, users have zero liability if there are fraudulent purchases and users need a PIN number to access the app, meaning the chip can't be accessed by hackers.

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HTC CEO Peter Chou has announced today that his company will move back to open bootloaders on their devices, following considerable customer outcry.

It is unclear which phone will be the first to be released with the unlocked bootloader, but the upcoming EVO 3D is a likely candidate.

Says the CEO:

There has been overwhelmingly [sic] customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones. I want you to know that we've listened. Today, I'm confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices. Thanks for your passion, support and patience.

Current HTC phone owners will likely have to stick with waiting for the boys and girls over at XDA to get their devices more open, however.

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PayPal and its parent eBay have sued Google and two executives today over trade secret misappropriation.

The trade secrets were related to mobile payment systems.

Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, two execs formerly of PayPal, helped Google launch their "Wallet" system today. Bedier worked for PayPal for nine years, serving as vice president of platform, mobile and new ventures before moving to Google in January of this year.

Tilenius was VP of e-commerce for eBay until early 2010.

Both are accused of having "misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers," says Yahoo.

The suit also claims that PayPal and Google were working together since 2008 on a deal that would make PayPal a payment option for app purchases via the Android Market.

Bedier was the executive in charge of the negotiations with Google at the time.

"At the very point when the companies were negotiating and finalizing the Android-PayPal deal, Bedier was interviewing for a job at Google -- without informing PayPal of this conflicting position," the suit says.

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NVIDIA announces YouTube is giving users the ability to view thousands of 3D videos on their NVIDIA 3D Vision PCs and notebooks.

The videos will work with the latest version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser. "We're excited to introduce HTML5 and WebM support to the thousands of 3D videos available on YouTube," said Jonathan Huang, 3D Product Manager at YouTube. "By embracing these open standards, NVIDIA 3D Vision users now have a great way of experiencing YouTube's library of 3D content."

With the growth of 3D camcorders for the consumer market, the amount of content that can be created by consumers and uploaded to sites such as YouTube has risen. YouTube's support of NVIDIA 3D Vision technology extends its existing commitment to 3D, enabling even more consumers and 3D enthusiasts to share their 3D videos online.

"Firefox with 3D Vision creates a stunning and smooth 3D video experience using HTML5 video based on open standards," said Jay Sullivan, VP of Products at Mozilla. "3D Vision from NVIDIA is a great example of the rich, innovative experiences that are being built on top of the speed and graphics power that Firefox delivers to the Web."

To further showcase the new YouTube stereoscopic 3D video streaming capabilities and some of the latest professional and user-generated 3D YouTube videos, NVIDIA is now hosting the top YouTube stereoscopic 3D videos on its 3D web community site at www.3DVisionLive.com/YT3D.

"YouTube 3D on an NVIDIA 3D Vision PC is an amazing experience," said Phil Eisler, general manager of 3D Vision at NVIDIA. "Now 3D Vision PC users can enjoy over 525 games, YouTube videos and photos in theater-quality, full-resolution 3D."

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Social networking site dismissed claims of "scam artist" again.

Facebook Inc has urged a court to throw out a complaint made by a New York man, claiming he owns a substantial amount of the multi-billion valued social networking giant. The lawsuit is a "brazen and outrageous" fraud, according to a filing made with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

Paul Ceglia claims that back when Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, was a student at Harvard University, he entered a contract with him that provides him with a 50 percent stake of Mark's stake.

Facebook and Zuckerberg have dismissed the lawsuit from the very beginning, and have described Mr. Ceglia as "an inveterate scam artist whose misconduct extends across decades and borders."

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Prisoners in Chinese labour camps were forced to play online games for hours to make money for the guards.

The practice of excessively playing online games to build up virtual currency (or other virtually valuable assets) is known as "gold farming", and it is particularly rampant in China where estimates put as many as 100,000 gold farmers throughout the region.

Liu Dali, a former prisoner of the Jixi labour camp, used to have to break rocks, dig trenches and other manual hard labour by day, and then was forced at night to play online games to build up virtual credits which the prison guards would then trade for real money.

"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."

Even though playing games excessively is not as physically demanding on the human body as the hard manual labour he was forced to endure, he revealed that there were real consequences for not managing to fill a "quota" for the guards.

"If I couldn't complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things," he said.

By completing basic low-reward tasks repeatedly in online games, such as World of Warcraft, a player can build up masses of credits. The trade of these credits in the real world is skyrocketing, and the games' makers don't really know how to handle it.

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Members of the House of Representatives push AT&T chairman for answers on proposed $39 billion buy-out of T-Mobile.

The deal, which would see AT&T become the largest carrier in the United States, has been criticized from all angles because it further reduces the number of wireless carriers. Critics also say that T-Mobile's discount prices in comparison to others might be lost in the merger.

Chairman of AT&T, Randall Stephenson, told the U.S. House of Representatives' subcommittee on intellectual property, competition and the Internet, that the deal is a path to extending the company's reach into rural areas, and other underserved areas in the U.S.

"It's about achieving this with private capital," he said. "We continue to invest at a very aggressive pace."

If the deal were to go ahead, it would mean that 80 percent of U.S. wireless contract customers would be served by just two providers. To go ahead, it needs the approval of the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The panel pressing Stephenson for details has no say either way.

The reception to the deal by the panel was very skeptical of the proposed benefits to it. "There are legitimate questions about whether this merger could move this market past the anti-competitive tipping point," said Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican.

Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, also expressed concerns that AT&T would have the power to price backhaul in a way that would cut out smaller carriers. "How am I going to be comfortable that all of these smaller carriers that remain ... how can they be assured that they'll get fair value when buying backhaul?," he asked.

However, Representative Ben Quayle, an Arizona Republican, argued that prices have not gone up as the market consolidated and that any attempt to raise prices would likely give new companies an incentive to enter the market.

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A group of Finnish record labels are attempting to get the Pirate Bay BitTorrent website blocked in the country.

The group has filed a petition in court to block access to the controversial BitTorrent tracker, accusing it of providing copyrighted music, movies and other material to Finnish users.

"The development of a legal online market is impossible in Finland if illegal services like The Pirate Bay are freely allowed to continue their operations," said Lauri Rechardt, of the Finnish IFPI branch. The petition asks the courts to force ISP Elisa to block access to the Pirate Bay from subscribers within the country.

This is not the first attempt to block the controversial website in a country, and it wont be the last. The Pirate Bay has survived several raids since it opened initially in 2003, and still remains operation even after its founders were given prison sentences and hefty fines for copyright infringement offenses.

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Apple is pushing out a promised update for Mac users to remove and prevent infection of MacDefender variants, as another variant comes out thats harder to avoid.

MacDefender malware, including MacProtector and MacSecurity, were installed by thousands of Mac users who found them in search results targeted by their developers. The scareware works just the same as similar scams work with PCs; presenting fake security scan results and offering to remove the phony malware for a fee.

Some people are thought to have become infected because of the default Safari settings, allowing software to be downloaded and queued for installation.

Those who install it and then fall for the fake results could end up paying as much as $70.

Now a new variant of MacDefender, picked up by security firms, does not require any user permission to install on a system. Intego is recommending that Mac users disable the Safari feature that allows files deemed "safe" to be installed automatically.

The new MacDefender variant is also spreading the same was as the older ones, by targeting popular Mac-related search results.

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Independent label in the UK visits schools to educate kids about the work that goes into making music, and how illegal downloading threatens the whole system.

Shed Records, an independent record label in London, is visiting schools and allowing children to use some of its equipment to put together their own music tracks. The aim is to teach the students how much work goes into making just one track, and how many people have to be paid for their part in the process.

The effort is being backed by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represents the recorded music industry in the UK.

They want the children to understand that it is not just artists who lose out to piracy. "A whole army of people work behind the scenes to bring you new, fresh music," said Paul Shedden, Head of Label at Shed Records.

"Everything from the songwriters through to production, artists, engineers, radio pluggers, PR companies all those people need to get paid. Otherwise they can't continue doing the jobs they love and the music you love will stop coming out."

Currently, the scheme is targeting five schools as a trial, and if successful, the plan is to extend nationally, with other labels around the country providing similar sessions in schools.

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Chief Financial Officer confirms that increased R&D costs in Sony's books are largely due to next generation console development.

Masaru Kato, Sony CFO and executive video president, was asked about the increased costs of research and development for the company, following the release of its annual earnings report on Thursday.

"We have a portable NGP to be launched later this year, so we have development expenses to be incurred for this product and for the home equipment," Kato said.

"The PS3 still has a product life, but this is a platform business, so for the future platform--when we'll be introducing what product I cannot discuss that--but our development work is already under way, so the costs are incurred there."

Nintendo confirmed rumors of an upcoming Wii successor last month, saying the console would be playable at E3 next month. Microsoft also started looking to fill positions for the development of next generation Xbox products in March.

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UK websites given one more year to comply with EU cookie laws.

The EU's Privacy and Communications Directive comes into force today, but it is clear that most of Europe is lagging behind its requirements. It mandates that Internet users be offered to give their consent before cookies storing information on their usage are saved and then later retrievable by websites.

In the UK, the government has said it needs more time to find the best solution, favoring light-touch regulation.

"We recognise that some website users have real concerns around online privacy but also recognise that cookies play a key role in the smooth running of the Internet," said communications minister Ed Vaizey. "But it will take some time for workable technical solutions to be developed, evaluated and rolled out so we have decided that a phased in approach is right."

The UK government has already formed a working group with browser developers to see if a browser-based solution can be found. Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox already offer settings to protect users from services with college and harvest data, and Google is building "Do Not Track" features into Chrome.

A browser-based solution to comply with the directive could stop websites from having a "free for all" in terms of coming up with their own solutions. While some privacy advocates believe that users should be alerted by a website every time it tries to use a cookie, there are worries that this could lead to excessive pop-up alerts, confusing users and dampening their web experience.

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